Fans of 1980s nostalgia are hoping the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will continue the magic that 2018’s Bumblebee tapped into.
The first five movies in the franchise were all directed by Michael Bay. And although those movies — including the most recent 2017 effort Transformers: The Last Knight — do have their defenders, they have struggled to garner any semblance of respect from critics.
That all changed in 2018 with the Travis Knight-directed Bumblebee, which boasts an eye-watering 91 percent “certified fresh” score on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. From a critical standpoint, that’s a huge achievement for a franchise that had nothing but “rotten” entries up until that point. Now, people are wondering, will this new film continue in the same continuity established in Bumblebee? What’s more, will it continue that movie’s crowd-pleasing tone?
While the Bay films took place in modern times, the Hailee Steinfeld-starring Bumblebee was a prequel that took place in the 1980s. According to the Rise of the Beasts synopsis from the trailer on Paramount Pictures’ YouTube channel, the movie will be “a ’90s globetrotting adventure.” This may indicate it will follow in the continuity of Bumblebee, although it’s still not 100 percent clear. Nor is it clear if Steinfeld will appear in the film.
What is clear is that Bay will not be directing this upcoming film, with Rise of the Beasts instead being helmed by Creed II director Steven Caple Jr. Bay’s absence is a good thing, according to some commentators on Twitter.
However, the overall question of whether Rise of the Beasts takes place in the same continuity as Bumblebee remains unanswered.
Rise of the Beasts will introduce the Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons into the mix when it comes to the ongoing war between Autobots and Decepticons. These new sentient robots take after animals, rather than vehicles. Peter Cullen will once again reprise his role as the voice of Optimus Prime while Ron Perlman will voice his ape-like counterpart, Optimus Primal. In addition, Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback will be in the lead roles as our central human characters.
Another point of discussion was the design of the robots being closer to the cartoon originals. Some liked the retro look, while others maligned the computer-animated imagery for looking rough around the edges.
We think it’s a fairly safe bet that Rise of the Beasts will most likely follow in the footsteps of Bumblebee, and that’s probably a good thing.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts comes to theaters on June 9, 2023.